


Uferlose Sea

by orphan_account



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Lore Exploration, Mer Folk, Mermaids, Non-Canon Events, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 20:17:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short exploration into some of the more dangerous creatures of the sea as told through Emily's various encounters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uferlose Sea

She was a toddler, the first time she had ever laid eyes on a Mer.

The sea spat foam at her feet and swallowed her rocks whole. The wind was gentle, and the sky overcast so that the heavens and ocean blurred into a dull, murky grey. A guard captain watched from behind, settled into the sand, occassionally dozing off to the rhythm of the waves. Emily threw rock after rock, growing angry at their propensity to sink rather than skip delightfully through the air as her mother had shown her once before. After yet another failed attempt, her little foot stamped on the ground and she lobbed her last remaining stone as far as she could throw it.

She was quite surprised when it came skipping back to her feet.

Her eyes widened, for just beyond the reeds and seaweed there was a face looking out at her from behind a rock. It’s eyes were black as the deep, and its strange teeth stuck out at all angles. Emily, in her blossoming curiosity, was not frightened. She plucked her rock from the sand, and once again hurled it in the strange being’s direction. The creature didn’t flinch. She watched, fascinated, as it instead curled out five gnarled, webbed fingers and groped for the water. It pushed off the rock in her direction, slinking through the sand. Emily could now see it’s full length, and it was easily twice the size of a full grown man. She toed the water line, entranced.

"EMILY!"

The ground left her in a sudden deft movement, and she felt the hard metal of a buckle press into her chest. It was the first time she would ever hear a gun fire, and she would cry.

—————————————————————————————

The second encounter occoured on a fishing trip with Samuel.

"How come I never catch anything big?"

The old man chuckled. “You gotta be patient, Lady Emily. Some o’ the best ones are the ones worth waiting for.”

It was her first ocean fishing voyage, and Corvo had been more than reluctant to let her leave. Samuel proceeded to argue the merits of a peaceful fishing trip, and that Lady Emily could use some time without diplomats and guardsmen and responsibilities, and besides, he’d already told her about the horned otters that hung ‘round these parts and now she won’t take no for an answer. Corvo argued that horned otters haven’t been seen outside of Serkonos for years and Samuel just grinned as he loaded his tacklebox. After a muttered “back well before sun down”, Corvo let them be, and they set sail. He didn’t bring her out far, just far enough that they could no longer see the shore unless they squinted really hard through a looking glass, and that was enough to make her excited.  
Her excitement for the act of fishing itself evaporated quickly, but Samuel had enough stories to entertain a child for years on end.

It was during a particularly gripping tale about tagging a mud shark that Emily noticed her missing bobber. She yelped, and tugged.

"Samuel my reel is stuck? It won’t… turn…" Tongue lolling out of her mouth, she fiddled with the reel and the crank, then tweaked the line itself.

"Here, lemme see sweetheart," he pulled at the tip of the rod, peering over the side of the boat. "It looks like you mighta caught it on some seaweed, it ain’t budgin’ though. That’s odd." Emily watched as he leaned farther out over the water, and then a mighty thump shook the boat and he went over, yanking the pole out of her hands.

"Sam!" She rocked to her feet, trying to steady the boat on her own. "Samuel?!" She peered over the edge into the water, and, seeing only froth and bubble, began to panic. The boat rocked yet again, and she was thrown back. Scrambling to her feet, she looked out over the opposite side of the boat for the source of their trouble. A shadow about the length of a baby whale circled out away from the boat. It was far too thin to be a whale, she mused. An eel, perhaps? Splashing behind her brought her back to her senses and she again threw herself across the boat. Samuel bobbed up in a moment, gasping and flailing. "This way, over here!" She reached out for him-

"Emily, stay back! Get back and get my pistol!" Emily obliged, and watched as he hauled himself back into the boat, clutching his leg. "Well, I wasn’t wrong. You were caught on seaweed." He grimaced, and dropped her bobber.

"Samuel what’s happening? What was that?" She handed him his weapon, shaking.

"I’ll let you know when we get back to shore. Just do me a favor sweetheart and keep yourself away fr-" he froze. "Cover your ears."

"What?"

"DO IT NOW!" He lunged starboard, aiming his pistol and firing a few rounds into the water. She watched as he reloaded, hesitated, and went for his tacklebox. After rummaging around for a bit he pulled out two sets of earplugs, motioning her over to take one. "I didn’t think we’d have to use these today. They’ve stopped singing now, but put them in just in case." He wasn’t talking to her anymore. His eyes were glazed over, looking out at the horizon. "I don’t know how many there are." He limped toward the engine.

"Samuel what are they? What did they do to you, are you okay?"

"Never you mind, my Lady. We’re goin’ home now. Them be the Mer folk, and they don’t take kindly to intruders. I just don’t know what they’re doin’ this far inland. Makes me uneasy." He sighed. "I know you’re gonna have some questions but, I’ll answer them later, under supervision of Corvo when we’re back ashore. I think he’s gonna need to know about this too."

They returned without much incident, though occassionally Emily thought she saw a shadow or two behind the boat. Samuel never did follow up on her questions, but he did have a long, private talk with a very unhappy Corvo.

——————————————————————————————-

Her most recent encounter happened aboard a trade ship sailing back from Tyvia. It was strongly advised by an aging Corvo that she oversee the shipment herself to strengthen relations and meet with their recently appointed ambassador, and after a tense few days she was glad to be on her way back.

She was sitting in her quarters, drinking a cup of tea and reading the ledger. There was no warning. The ship rocked, and she was thrown from her seat in the cabin. There were screams coming from the top deck and she scrambled to her feet, slamming bodily into the door until she fumbled it open. Her boots pounded the wood until she found herself staring with abject horror into the face of an alien. Its long, grotesquely shaped arms were stretched across the corridor, holding itself up in lieu of legs. Its face was vaguely human, and somewhere her subconscious mind screamed with burning recognition. It was wheezing, the gills on its torso flexing with the effort. Its body reminded her vaguely of something that would occur if a water snake bred with a seahorse. Feeler-like fins splayed out over the wood from its back and sides, moving each of their own accord and looking suspisciously like kelp. The same type of fin blossomed out from its face, undulating as if it were still underwater. And those black, black eyes…

Slowly, she retreated. It seemed that the thing broke in through the porthole, though how it fit its entire body through the opening was well beyond her. It didn’t move as she reversed, but when she reached for the cabin door it hissed and dropped to its chest. Her next move was decided for her as a guard crashed through the door and they collided.

He looked down in shock. “Empress?” His next words were cut off by a claw to the throat. The thing was on top of him, devouring him as he screamed. Emily plunged a hand into her holster, withdrawing a sleek looking handgun and firing one, two, three shots into the monster’s head. It went down without a fight, shriveling up and rolling over. The stench was unbearable, between the dead creature (Mer, the word came back to her in a flash) and the dead soldier, for whom her heart broke. She carried on at last to the main deck, and found it in utter chaos. A dozen of them had swarmed the ship and were taking her men and women down with ruthless efficiency. She clutched at her pistol, fixing to reload. She had not an inkling of the best way to attack the situation but standing around would lead to an ever-mounting body count. She opened fire at the nearest one, who had its claws embedded in a woman’s face, missed, and was knocked down on her rear. It was on top of her in an instant, and the fear took hold of her. She fired, screaming, in the direction of it’s head. She watched the bullet clip one of it’s fins and it pulled back in agony. Emily took the chance and bucked, dislodging the Mer and kicking it in the stomach.

She skittered across the deck on her hands and knees, dodging whipping tails and bullets, trying to asses the situation. What would Corvo do? she wondered, desperately. More than half of her squad were definitively dead, the rest looking about ready to abandon ship. Positively suicide, she mused. Her eyes lingered on the deck, scanning for some kind of out. On a whim, she booked it back into the cabin. “Kieron? Kieron are you still down here?”

"My Lady, this way!" He was standing over the Mer she felled earlier. He was their resident natural philosopher, also incidentally in charge of the numbers for the ship’s stock. He looked remarkably calm, his dark features curled into nothing more than a vague grimace. A small rapier dangled at his side.

"I need to know, did we sell off the entire stock of incendiary fluid?"

"I don’t…" His eyes widened with comprehension. "You’re not."

"I am."

"We’ll become a flaming beacon to every damn pirate within a ten mile radius. Between them and the Mer, we’ll be taken out in no time."

"I don’t really see much of an option. Something tells me these bastards don’t take kindly to fire."

"I can’t imagine so. We’re still a ways from docking, I’m not sure that a flaming ship would last that long."

"Yet again, I don’t feel we have a choice." She threw a glance over her shoulder at the sound of something wet and hissing clawing it’s way through the doorway. "I think now would be a good time to open the stock room."

They went down and returned without incident. The Mer who crashed through the window had apparently been an anomaly, and by the time they returned the creatures seemed to have made themselves quite at home feasting on the bodies of the dead.

"This is going to take some timing and finesse," Emily whispered. "We’re going to need to fend them off until these things ignite, and at the same time hope they don’t get knocked around by the Mer. It’s a longshot at best, and we don’t know for sure these are going to go up." She bumped one of the barrels, to which they’d attached makeshift fuses.

"With utmost respect, my Lady, you’re not doing well for the morale."

"Plan for the worst, hope for the best." She readied a match. "On three?" Kieron nodded. They both struck their matches. "Three!" They lit the fuses, and in tandem kicked their respective barrels of fluid out onto the deck. As anticipated, the Mer turned on them. "Run, run, RUN!" Emily made to sprint for the front of the boat, but Kieron grabbed her arm.

"I’m not a demolition expert but I’m smart enough to know that if you light anything extremely flammable in a compressed space it’s probably going to explode!"

"If we go into the boat we’ll be trapped! We need them to go towards the fire!" He pushed her away, slamming the cabin door. "Hey!"

"For your own good," he grunted. For a brief moment there was silence. Loud shrieking pierced the air and the door started shaking on its hinges. He dug his heels into the ground, finding no traction. "My Lady if we live through this I’m going to start a petition for your impeachment."

"Not if I resign first," she chided, bracing herself against the door beside him.

They struggled trying to hold back the horde, for just a few precious seconds, minutes…

It felt like hours before they were suddenly turned up on their heads, the smell of sulfur and whale oil filling the air. The shrieking grew faint.

"By the Outsider I absolutely cannot believe…" Kieron rolled onto his knees and pressed his ear to the door. He glanced at Emily, then back at the door. "I was kidding about the impeachment."

"I was kidding about the resignation." She stood and shoved him away from the door, yanking it open. The Mer weren’t gone, but they were confused. Some of them had started edging toward the brink of the ship, warily eyeing the fire that now billowed front and center. She closed them back in, softly, and knelt down. "They’re stunned. The good news is we didn’t blow a hole in the ship, but I think only one of the barrels actually went. The other is leaking but I’m not sure it will catch."

"Well, now what?"

"We wait and pray to the spirits that we don’t burn alive on this forsaken ship."

Night had fallen and the ship was engulfed by the time it reached the shores of Dunwall. Massive hunks broke off here and there, crashing with thunderous pomp into the ocean below. The remaining living Mer had long since abandoned the catch. The ship fell to pieces before it reached the shore, setting the horizon ablaze. Corvo and a smattering of city watch guards looked on in dismay.

"Should we… send out a search party, sir?"

Corvo was silent.

The captain pressed his lips into a thin line, withdrawing his gaze. “Alright men, we have a long night ahead of us. I need you in groups of three with an elected captain manning a search vessel, we search the wreckage until dawn when we have more light. Arsenio, I need you and your men on—” Corvo motioned for silence, pointing wordlessly out at the beach.

Empress Emily and Kieron beached their lifeboat. Emily jumped out into shallow water, trekking across the sand, flagging Corvo and the men down. Kieron struggled with the Mer body they’d preserved, dragging it out onto the beach and collapsing in a tired heap. Emily made it a few more paces before she herself buckled under exhaustion.

The ordeal became known through the Isles as the Night of the Burning Sea, and Emily was heralded as a hero for her ingenuity and quick thinking. It was a title she wore bitterly, shucking the notion of heroism everytime she dredged up the memory of those she lost. Kieron, every so often, softly reminded her that she couldn’t have anticipated the attack, and she did the best she could with what she had. He mostly kept to his studies after that, straying away from being out in the field. Despite all of his well wishes, she suspected he harbored a great deal of survivors guilt, and she made it a point to visit him whenever she could.

Often times she found herself gazing out over the sea, hallucinating slinky shadows winding their way down the shore.

Sometimes their song would call to her in the night, and she would wake up hysterical and crying out to the confused maids for comfort.

Once, in a dream, where she floated on strange gravity in an empty nothing, she mentioned them to the black eyed ghost that walked there. He merely laughed, in a wicked way, and she awoke, feeling naught but emptiness and dread.


End file.
